Musings and Sometimes Rants about the non-equal status of Fathers in Family Law and Parenting. Additionally periodic comparisons to the treatment of men compared to women in other areas including health care.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I would like to thank Ian for providing this valuable information. Ian quotes, in a kindly manner, the following about Jaffe: " Longtime domestic violence expert Peter Jaffe acknowledges "there are cases that involve false allegations, but they're a small minority."

Jaffe is not a DV expert. He is a gender specific researcher in Domestic Violence. Less kindly people call him a gender bigot or worse. He does live in a world of Gender Apartheid where he completely ignores violence by women on men and children.

He ignores the greater initiation precipitated in DV by females, http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a , he ignores the equanimity of mutual partner aggression, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/Daily/English/050714/d050714a.htm and he ignores the over 1/3 serious injury rate of men who are often attacked with weapons. Further to this, he uses his highly biased one-sided research to remove men from their homes, deny dads a right to shared parenting and does great disservice to his own gender. We call his methods "kindly" gender biased. If you only report on one side of a two-sided problem, it is no more than propaganda and he is the leading Canadian researcher in this area.

Please note the name of the section where he works. "UWO's Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children". Why is he called to give comments on a human problem when he deals with only one side? The foregone conclusion is he will report only in support of the feminist pogrom and canard that only men are abusers.

Mr. Jaffe carefully cherry picks information to give to reporters where he indicates false allegations are minor. In the 1998 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (N= 7,509) 22% of proven false allegations of sexual abuse were made by custodial parents. These were proven false but many more allegations are found to be unsubstantiated. This is a nice way for the social workers, largely female, to indicate not enough proof was evident to indicate they were false. Many non-custodial dads consider reports by the CAS protective workers to be less than satisfactory. The CAS' across Ontario are currently moving toward aligning themselves with the Violence Against Women (VAW) sector on an official basis rather than the current ad hoc approach. When this occurs, one can expect any reports by CAS protective workers to be highly biased and highly suspect. If the source reports for research lack veracity so then do the results. Ninety percent of physical custody is given to moms in Canada (86% in the USA) thanks to the kind of work Jaffe performs. False allegations increase during custody disputes. If shared and equal parenting were presumed, conflict would be reduced with a lesser likelihood of false allegations.

A U.S. Air Force study found that 30% of the accusations against alleged male perpetrators were proven false, through DNA evidence or otherwise. When faced with the prospect of a lie detector test, another 30% of the accusers either failed the test, or refused to take it. Other major studies put the rate of false accusations of rape at 50 – 60%.In the USA one study found 71% of civil restraining orders were unnecessary or false. (Foster BP. Analyzing the cost and effectiveness of governmental policies. Cost Management Vol. 22, No. 3, 2008.)

Another analysis found over half of restraining orders did not involve even an allegation of violence. (Office of the Commissioner of Probation, Massachusetts Trial Court: The tragedies of domestic violence: A qualitative analysis of civil restraining orders. October 12, 1995.)

By IAN GILLESPIE, The London Free Press Last Updated: March 10, 2010 8:35am

When it comes to gaining access to their kids, a growing number of divorced fathers say they've been stymied by a police and court system that reflexively views women as believable and men as violent.

It's an emotional topic that dismays many of those who work in the field of domestic violence.

But a growing number of men's groups -- and a private member's bill (C-422) that would amend the Divorce Act by instructing judges to grant equal shared parenting except in proven cases of abuse -- are advancing this view.

One man I spoke to, for instance, says his ex-wife falsely accused him of slamming a van door on her leg. And even though that assault charge was later withdrawn by the Crown attorney, the man says the allegations damaged his reputation during proceedings with a family court judge who restricted his access to his kids.

It's those kinds of situations that the fledgling London Equal Parenting Committee will explore during "an evening of awareness in relation to domestic violence" Thursday at Crouch Library.

The evening's main speaker is Roger Gallaway, the former Sarnia-Lambton MP who co-chaired a 1998 federal report called For The Sake Of The Children, which examined issues surrounding child custody.

"What I find distressing is the lack of objectivity around this whole subject," says Gallaway, who represented his riding for the Liberal party from 1993 to 2006. "There has to be some type of balance put into the discussion. And it's sadly lacking."

Gallaway regrets that none of the 1998 report's recommendations -- including a call for stricter rules regarding the reporting of abuse -- were ever adopted. "An allegation of violence is a weapon," he says. "And in Ontario we have a zero-tolerance policy, which generally speaking says that when allegations are made, it's the male who's removed (from the residence). And that then casts the die for what will occur in terms of child custody or access." Gallaway adds that more and more people are starting to realize that more and more deserving fathers are being shortchanged when it comes to contentious custody battles.

"There's a growing constituency . . . that sees what's occurring and knows these men aren't bad people," he says. "So the doubt about what is being said about (so-called) violent men is growing."

Jaffe insists, however, that there are enough checks and balances already embedded within the justice system to filter out dubious allegations.

"The No. 1 problem we have in 2010 is people living with violence and abuse and not getting help for it," says Jaffe, academic director of UWO's Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children. "What's needed is more resources."

What's really needed, of course, is a co-operative culture where estranged parents do what's best for their kids. But that's about as likely as me having a baby.

IF YOU GOWhat: Domestic Violence in Divorce: Propaganda and other Fictions, presented by the London Equal Parenting Committee and featuring Roger Gallaway.

About Me

I am Politically active and right of centre on most issues with the odd exception such as legalization of "Mary Jane".
I advocate on changes to Family Law - an incredibly dysfunctional arena where parents are pitted against one another and children are the victims.
My picture will sometimes show me as a younger man simply because I like them.

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Leading causes of Injury to Women 2006

In 2006, unintentional falls were the leading cause of nonfatal injury among women of every age group, and rates generally increased with age. Women aged 65 years and older had the highest rate of injury due to unintentional falls (59.7 per 1,000 women), while slightly more than 19 per 1,000 women aged 18–34 and 35–44 years experienced fall-related injuries. Unintentional injuries sustained as motor vehicle occupants were the second leading cause of injury among 18- to 34-year-olds (18.7 per 1,000), while unintentional overexertion was the second leading cause of injury among women aged 35–44 and 45–64 years (13.7 and 9.3 per 1,000, respectively). Among women aged 65 years and older, being unintentionally struck by or against an object was the second leading cause of injury (5.7 per 1,000).

Injury related Emergency Department Visits

Unintentional and intentional injuries each represented a higher proportion of emergency department (ED) visits for men than women in 2005. Among women and men aged 18 years and older, unintentional injuries accounted for 19.9 and 27.5 percent of ED visits, respectively, while intentional injuries, or assault, represented 1.4 and 2.7 percent of visits, respectively. Among both women and men, unintentional injury accounted for a higher percentage of ED visits among those living in non-metropolitan areas, while adults living in metropolitan areas had a slightly higher percentage of ED visits due to intentional injury.